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Do I actually have anything to say?

Does what I write actually stay on topic?

If I’m making an argument, do I actually know how to make an argument?

Over the last couple years, a lot of schools have started to use CRMs for education purposes. They’ve done it because their LMSs and SIS’s aren’t getting the job done. It’s a great idea that works well in marketing, but not so well in learning.

In education, we don’t need CRM. We need a new category of tools--Learning Relationship Management--to: make sure that each student has a personal learning plan that aligns with their long-term ambition for life enable mentors, coaches, advisors, and instructors to collaborate to help students succeed. provide for digital learning communities that strengthen informal learning ensure that each student has exactly what they need to reach their goals allow schools to connect better and more relevant content to their students allow schools to connect with industry to make sure that learners are ready to be productive and self-sufficient upon graduation

LMSs don’t cut it because they put the classroom at the center, not the students and their goals. CRM doesn’t cut it because it has no role for students to manage their own relationships.

You should be asking: Who is using my site? Where are they coming from? What content are they consuming? How are they engaging with that content? What can I do to make their experience better? Beyond these questions, I'm honestly not sure what else we'd really need to know.

Moore's Law - the proposition that computer capabilities double approximately every 18 months - suggests that we are riding an exponential tidal wave that will, say the MIT researchers, make many human skills redundant. But six will survive, say Messrs Brynjolfsson and McAfee, no matter how fast and smart computers become. Those skills are: statistical insight; managing group dynamics; good writing; framing and solving open-ended problems; persuasion; and human nurturing. These will define the jobs they think will exist at the end of the universe.

Do Your Homework Fortunately, whether or not Google makes a commenting widget isn't that big a deal on its own. Maybe they will or maybe they won't, and maybe it'll fail again or maybe it won't. But the key lesson to take away here is that we know a few things are wrong with the trade press in the technology world: In tech financial coverage, there is a focus on valuation, deals and funding instead of markets, costs, profits, losses, revenues and sustainability. In tech executive coverage, there is a focus on personalities and drama instead of capabilities and execution. In tech product coverage, there is a focus on features and announcements instead of evaluating whether a product is meaningful and worthwhile. Technology trade press doesn't treat our industry as a business, so much as a "scene"; If our industry had magazines, we'd have a lot of People but no Variety, a Rolling Stone, but no Billboard.

I’ll let Cal speak for himself, but I think we are both in agreement on the following: Spontaneous joy and being “lost” in our experience is not the primary goal. Growth and creative achievement are our primary goals. Growth requires accepting difficult challenges. At first the challenges produce anxiety. As we develop the skills we need to meet the challenges, we reduce our anxiety, and the process becomes easier. Once we get so good at something that it becomes easy, we should seek out new challenges, or choose a new weaknesses to correct (if we care about growth). Anxiety that’s not inherent to the challenge, such as anxiety that comes from being disorganized, overwhelmed, unfocused, and from lacking a clear sense of purpose is unnecessary. We should fix those things if we can (and we can).